Health leaders release One Brave Idea research award

Leaders from the American Heart Association (AHA), AstraZeneca and Verily Life Sciences LLC recently announced the winner of the One Brave Idea research award: Dr. Calum MacRae, chief of cardiovascular medicine at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The award, which amounts to $75 million, will finance the doctor’s innovative method for understanding and resolving coronary heart disease (CHD). His research could also alter the devastating consequences.

“After launching a global search effort earlier this year, we are proud to announce the selection of Dr. Calum MacRae as the leader of our One Brave Idea initiative,” Nancy Brown, CEO of the AHA, said. “Dr. MacRae and his newly formed, world-renowned, multidisciplinary team were selected from among hundreds of applicants throughout the world to receive this landmark award that will provide support over a five-year period for a research project focused on uncovering the causes of heart disease, including previously unrecognized signals marking the transition from wellness to the earliest, yet still largely invisible stages of disease.”

The One Brave Idea award is the largest one-time award specifically provided for a single team to discover a cure for CHD as well as end its outcomes.

“The vision for One Brave Idea was to create an innovative model for scientific research by bringing together significant resources and diverse organizations to support a single vision,” Dr. Jessica Mega, chief medical officer of Verily, said. “With our partners at the American Heart Association and AstraZeneca, we hope this initiative will inspire other new approaches to funding and catalyze meaningful advances for patients living with coronary heart disease and other conditions.”